How to Watch the Spectacular Eta Aquarid Meteor Shower

April 25, 2017

Stargazers love a good meteor shower, and while the Perseids or Leonids get the most attention, another exquisite one is just ramping up. The Eta Aquarid meteor shower occurs every spring between April 22nd and May 20th, and this year, it’s expected to peak around dawn on May 6th.

Skywatchers should be able to see up to 30 meteors per hour—while the name “shooting stars” is the popular way to describe these little guys, the meteors are actually just tiny flecks of ice burning up in our atmosphere. It’s true that 30 bright flashes per hour isn’t quite as much action as the Perseid or Geminid showers, which can produce up to 50-100 meteors per hour. But the meteors in the Aquarid shower actually quite bright, and since they move very quickly—about 148,000 miles per hour—they leave very long “tails” in the sky.